Serialized Spidey
by David Golightly
Summary: Each episode is only one scene and under a thousand words. Think of it as a literary comic strip. Read and Review!
1. Chapter 1

HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Episode 1 – "Man About Town"

No matter how difficult things get in my life there's one thing I'll always love: web-slinging. It clears the cobwebs out of my head, if you'll excuse the pun. Soaring high over New York City I get a new lease on life each and every time. It doesn't matter if Kraven is hunting me or I just put away Doc Ock for the umpteenth time. Whenever I flick my wrist and cast out that webline I flush all my troubles away.

That's the great thing about being a superhero. You don't have to worry about always looking forward and losing yourself in the imaginative moment. Your whole life is nothing but fantasy. Least, that's how I look at it.

I caught the top of the Bugle building with a webline and made sure to swing by Jonah's office for giggles. Like I expected, he rushed to the window and slammed his sourpuss against the glass, waving one hand over his head. I'm sure he was screaming something about me being a menace, or a plague on the city, or a wanted felon. I merely saluted him as I swung by, smiling under my red mask.

J. Jonah Jameson has a good portion of the city thinking that I'm the worst thing to hit since…well, ever. "A reckless vigilante that's in league with all these super-criminals running around!" That's what he says in every single press conference he's ever given. I'll never understand how a jerk like that gets go much attention.

A few blocks and a few uplifting somersaults later, I'm plopping down on top my apartment building. My wife, Mary Jane, and I have lived here since we got married six months ago. It's not much but it's all we can afford with her budding acting career and my part time work for the Daily Bugle. Yep, that's right: I work for the pigheaded Jonah. Ironic, huh?

I slip into the jeans and t-shirt I had left on the roof and haul butt down the stairwell. I didn't want to be late for dinner again, not after the last time MJ had ended up waiting for me while I tangled with the Shocker.

"Welcome home, Tiger!" she exclaimed as I cracked open the door and waltzed into the kitchen. "You're just in time for my famous homemade waffles."

I kissed her on the cheek and checked out the stove. "Waffles? For Dinner?"

"It's eccentric."

"You're eccentric, sweety," I replied. MJ was a beautiful and talented redhead and I was lucky to have tricked her into loving me, but her cooking? Let's not go there.

I tickled her side with one hand as I reached for a clean plate out of the sink with the other. She squirmed like she always did but didn't pull away. God, I loved her.

"Let me just shut the TV off here--"

"Wait," I said, leaning around the corner to see the screen. There was a news report on, something about an explosion uptown around the Clark building.

"No, no, no."

I looked at MJ, set down my plate, and kissed her on the other cheek. "Sorry, babe," I apologized. "I'll be back as fast as I can."

And just like that, despite an irritated wife and famous waffles, I ran back up to the roof and threw the tights back on. Peter Parker may have a private like but Spider-Man sure doesn't.

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Chapter 2

**PREVIOUSLY: Spidey had just gotten back to his apartment when he saw a news report about an explosion somewhere uptown!**

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HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Episode 2 – "The Scorpion Strikes"

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More often than not I find myself wondering what I do this for. Adrenaline? Tradition? Chicks? Why do we do anything? It's a tantalizing question for the ages and more than a little hard to figure out when you're avoiding an SUV that's just been tossed into the air.

"Sit still, wall-crawler!"

The guy making the threats is none other than my good ol' buddy Mac Gargan, or as you probably know him, the Scorpion. Mac has a rough life…at least that's what he'd tell you over tea. Nothing a few C-notes wouldn't cure, which I suspect is his reasoning since I just caught him trying to rob the First Bank of New York. Though, I'm not sure why he used explosives to rip the vault open when his enhanced abilities would have worked just fine.

"Sorry, Gargan," I yelled back as I pulled my webline taut and sprung over the SUV, "I've caught the ADHD. Can't sit still for the life of me."

Even though I'm giving off a vibe of reckless good cheer I'm actually scarred out of my mind of what that stray Hummer might do to bystanders. I somersaulted forward in the air and kicked down hard with my feet, catching Gargan in the center of his chest and knocking him off balance. Using him as a springboard, I bounced off of the Scorpion and fired off two quip _thwips! _of webbing at the SUV. I've gotten good enough with my aim that I usually hit what I'm gunning for, even while sailing through the air. One webline caught the Hummer's bumper and the other stuck to the undercarriage, which gave me a decent angle to yank down on.

The SUV stopped short in the air and slammed down onto the street, which just had to have snapped the front axle. Thanks to my increased speed and strength I had saved a pair of tourists that were too busy snapping away photos of the city's resident arachno-hero…but had put myself in the perfect position for Gargan to sucker-punch me.

My spider-sense had been buzzing but stopping the Hummer had distracted me and I was paying the price for it. The force of his punch sent me reeling into a stupor, giving him the perfect opportunity to grab me with his big, green arms.

"Why do you always turn up?" he asked as his massive arms started to squeeze the life out of me.

"Why…do you always…have anchovy breath?"

I guess answering a question with a question must be one of his pet peeves because he just growled at me. Scorpion let his arms loosen, giving me a moment to taste some sweet oxygen before he wrapped his tail around my legs and held me overhead for the world to see. I felt like a caught fish that had just been clubbed, held up next to a scale.

"Always the smart mouth," Gargan chided. My vision was a little fuzzy but I could make out a vicious sneer on his face. "You won't be cracking jokes after I crack your skull."

The Scorpion's tail tightened around me and I saw little, tiny stars begin to creep into my peripheral vision. Having done this for a few years now I could recognize unconsciousness when it was about to come a'knocking. Unless I figured a way to unlatch myself from Gargan's tail I was going to one crushed webhead.


	3. Chapter 3

**PREVIOUSLY: Spidey went to investigate an explosion at the First Bank of New York, only to find his old nemesis, The Scorpion! Now trapped in his tail, Spider-Man is head-over-heels in trouble.

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HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Episode 3 – "False Start"

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As a superhero I find myself in odd situations all the time. Locked in a death chamber by the Green Goblin. Tied to a giant turnip by the White Rabbit (loooong story). Held upside down by a mechanical scorpion tail. 

That last one just so happens to be my latest happening happenstance.

"Having trouble breathing, wall-crawler?" the Scorpion asked, a little sarcastically I might add.

I would have answered but having the life squeezed out of you tends to leave you a little speechless. For as much as a simplistic moron as Mac Gargan is he has the muscle to compensate. You know that cliché people give high football players? Big and dumb? That provides all the in depth analysis of Gargan that you'll ever need. Unfortunately the big and _slow_ stereotype doesn't fit his ugly, green hide. He's fast enough to catch me off guard and that's really saying something.

His tail was wrapped around me pretty tight and I only had a few seconds to try and free myself before my spine did its best impersonation of an Osborne's mental state (that's a pun for something snapping…leave me alone, I'm winded).

The Scorpion had been created in direct opposition to me. That meant all of his strengths were supposedly above my average and that my normal tactics were useless against him. In fact, his exoskeleton was so slick that my webbing often slid off before adhering. Since his tail was part of his exoskeleton then it was also devoid of most friction and I was able to wiggle my one arm free.

As soon as I popped my arm out from between his coils I saw a look of surprise and anger splashed across the Scorpion's ugly puss. The extra room let me pull in a quick breath before he instinctively tightened again, but it was all I needed. Now that a little oxygen had gotten to my brain I could coordinate my free arm enough to aim my webshooter at his eyes. With a quick _thwip!_ of mine and a little screaming on his part, Gargan's face was covered in sticky stuff and I fell out from between the folds of his tail.

I managed to get my feet under me before I hit the pavement and fell into a crouch. "Say g'night, Gracie!" Who says my one-liners aren't made of solid gold?

I sprung back up off the ground and planted a firm uppercut to Gargan's chin, which sent him flipping back over himself and face down onto the sidewalk. The excess webbing still attached to the top of his head held his face to the ground, keeping him from getting back up. I make that stuff strong, yo.

"Mmph mmph rumph!"

"Sorry?" I replied, cocking a hand to the ear beneath my mask. "I didn't quit catch that. You what? You want your mommy? Oh, my!"

The Scorpion pressed his arms down against the ground and pushed up with all his strength, ripping his face free of the webbing that had now adhered to the sidewalk. Ouch. That must have hurt like the dickens. He looked really mad…like, madder than usual. Oops.

"I'll gut you!" he roared. I think he meant it, too.

I barely dodged his claws as they came at me, spinning around and bringing my forearm down across the back of his neck in a perfectly executed martial arts thingy that I had watched Iron Fist do once. It's nice to have friends who can teach you important things like that.

Even though Gargan's bulky frame had passed by me his tail was still swinging. I grabbed onto it as it tried to lay me out. It was like wrestling a live anaconda, only instead of two fangs there was one giant prong. He tossed me left and right, finally breaking my grip and sending me flying at a nearby Volkswagon.

While I was flying through the air I chanced a quick look back at Gargan and saw a big smile on his face. Maybe I shouldn't have made that crack about his mom.

TO BE CONTINUED


	4. Chapter 4

**PREVIOUSLY: After seeing an explosion on the news, Spider-Man swung uptown and is now busy tangling with one of his deadliest foes, the vicious Scorpion!

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HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents:

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Episode Four – "Caught In A Web"

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The only thing I can think of that's creepier than a giant monster is a giant monster wearing a green suit, smiling as he tosses a manhole cover at my face. Gargan's teeth are like daggers, jagged and pointy. I'm still a little loopy from the bear hug he gave me with his tail but my spider-sense is still working at peak efficiency. I hopped over the manhole cover and triggered both of my webshooters, covering the Scorpion's feet in gooey webbing.

"I'll rip your arms off!" the Scorpion screamed as he clawed at the fresh coating of webbing.

That's the thing with Gargan. I can toss my best banter at him all day long and it will just bounce right off. He'd be a horrible stage partner, especially on improv night. The guy is psychopathic, plain and simple. He doesn't care about getting a good one-liner in there as long as there's some ol' fashioned blood-letting.

So, instead of wasting a zinger I shot a webline at the streetlight overhead and swung in to put the finishing touches on this underactor. I kicked my feet out at just the right moment to transfer all of my momentum directly into Gargan's chin. He tried to roll with the hit, but my webbing saw to it that he stayed put. He took the brunt of the impact like a champ, but I knew I had just knocked some serious sense into him.

I released the webline and fell onto his shoulders. Scorpion is one big hombre so it wasn't difficult to balance my weight, even without the aid of my patented sticky-grip. Spider-grip? Spidey-hold? Whatever you call it.

"You're…you're dead wallcrawler…"

"Sure, sure," I replied. He was obviously winded from my last hit and was beginning to tire. "Whatever you say. Just do me one favor, Gargan. Promise me you'll never write from prison. I know we've meant a lot to each other over the years, but I think it's about time we saw other people."

Breaking up is hard to do. I was worried he wouldn't take it well, so I punctuated the sentiment by slamming both of my elbows directly into the top of his skull. I was careful not to use too much of my enhanced strength, since making a corpse out of the moron would only add fuel to Jameson's fire. I've been reckless with my power before and there is no way that is ever happening again.

The dual blows to his head made the Scorpion sway a little bit to the left. I hopped off his broad shoulders and clung to the side of the streetlight, watching with pleasure as Gargan fell face forward into the sidewalk like we were in a cartoon. There's something to be said about the lost art of pratfalls.

Sirens were finally reaching my ears as I stepped off the streetlight and touched down right in from of the unconscious Scorpion. New York's finest are just that, but sometimes I wish they would hurry it up a little. Not that I want anyone else being responsible for this nutcase's actions, but it would be nice to have a little back-up. I caught a glimpse of a squad car rocketing around a corner about a block away, which meant it was time for me to leave. I'm not a spotlight kind of arachnid.

I threw down a heavy coating of webfluid to make sure Gargan wouldn't be standing up on his own for awhile and quickly scurried up the side of the closest building. It was broad daylight so I wouldn't be slipping into the shadows, but I had to at least get out of the general vicinity. Even though I respected the NYPD they didn't hold the same respect for me. The last thing I needed was some rookie eager to bag his first big collar.

As I hopped across a couple rooftops I couldn't get one thing out of my mind: why did the Scorpion need explosives to blow open the bank? Gargan was just as strong as I was so he should have no problem ripping a vault door open. He must have been working with someone, and the list comprised of those names was ridiculously long.

The thought unsettled me. If my intuition was right then this was far from over.

TO BE CONTINUED


	5. Chapter 5

**PREVIOUSLY: Our favorite wall-crawler took down the Scorpion after catching him trying to rob a bank…but something tells Spidey that the villain may not have been working alone!

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HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents:

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Episode Five – "The Bugle Calls!"

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"Parker, you're fired!"

I don't have the heart to tell Jonah that you can't fire a freelancer. It just isn't possible. Of course, this would also be the third time he's fired me this week. You'd think that I would get fed up with his bad attitude and constant harping on my webbed alter ego…but the truth is he just looks so cute when his mustache gets unfurled from yelling.

"Relax, J.J.," Robbie chimed in. God bless Robbie. He's one of the few supporters the Bugle has toward Spider-Man. Without him balancing Ol' Jonah out I'm sure the front page of the Sunday edition would be nothing but smears against me.

"_You_ relax!" Jonah yelled back. "I'll relax when Parker admits to where he gets all these close-up shots of that webhead! What's your secret, Parker? You best friends with this whacko in college or something?"

"Or something," I replied. If you think Jameson is upset now, just imagine what he would be like if I told him that I was actually Spider-Man and I've been right under his nose for years.

Jonah threw his hands up in disgust, but his eyes never left the six "candid" shots of Spider-Man sprawled out on his desk. The one on top was my favorite: Scorpion had just thrown an SUV at my head, but I was able to quickly jump out of the way and catch it with a bit of slick webshooting. The tourists he had almost hit needed to change their underwear, but they were safe, and damn did I look good. Never left anyone tell you that being a vigilante doesn't have its moments.

I call the shots "candid" because I knew where the camera was when the shots had been snapped. And I should know, I'm the one that webbed it to the top of the street light. Being Spider-Man is about responsibility and doing the right thing, but a guy has to eat. So, I set up the automatic camera, do a few poses during the fight, and sell the pics to the Daily Bugle for a hefty sum of cash.

"I ought to have you arrested for harboring a fugitive…" Jonah mumbled in my general direction.

"I'll get this shot on the front page, Pete," Robbie remarked as he snatched up the top photo and made for the exit. "Oh, by the way. I have an actual assignment for you if you aren't too busy chasing after the webhead."

My ears perked up and I'm sure I looked something like a kid on Christmas morning. Freelance work paid well enough but it was always hit and miss. Very rarely did I have a chance to show off my photography skills for something other than a downtown brawl concerning super-villains. If Robbie had an assignment for me, then that might be one step closer to steady work, which I desperately needed.

Robbie must have noticed the extreme look of anticipation plastered on my face because he didn't wait for a response. "Meet up with Ben Urich out in the bullpen. I want the pair of you to head over to the wharf and follow up on a reported sighting of that Hydro-Man character."

Thoughts of a Pulitzer Prize slipped away from me as I realized that it was an assignment connected to spandex. I didn't mind being the go-to guy for that kind of thing, but I had hoped for something more solid. Wouldn't it be nice if Peter Parker had a chance to shine while Spidey stayed in the dark for once?

Oh, well. That's life. I waved to Jonah on my way out, which I'm sure he promptly ignored in order to dream up his next headline for making Spider-Man sound like a criminal. Ben Urich was one of the best reporters the Bugle had, so if I had to work with someone on this assignment that knew his way around the super-villain crowd, I couldn't have hoped for a better partner.

Since we were just going to check out a sighting, at least there wouldn't be any need for the webshooter. I mean, what could go wrong, right?

Famous last words.

TO BE CONTINUED


	6. Chapter 6

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HEROES: The Fan Fiction Magazine presents

The Spectacular Spider-Man

Episode Six – "Working Class Hero"

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"Can you believe that guy?" Ben Urich said as he lit another cigarette, his third since we left the Bugle. "What a bum. Lied right to our faces without blinking."

Our cab had taken us from the Bugle to the wharf that Hydro-Man had been sighted at. No big surprise there, seeing as how a large body of water is nearby (regardless of how the Hudson might smell). The surprise ended up being shown the door by the warehouse owner even though we were supposed to have been given full access to the crime scene.

I snapped a few pics of the building before replying. "What makes you think he was lying, Ben?" I liked Ben. He had a real nose for news, and I will never understand why he stays under someone like Jonah.

"He's the one that called the police," Ben answered. He looked around at the wharf, taking in the full scene of docked shipping boats, water-stained planks, and sealed barrels. "Doesn't make sense for him to report the problem but not want to let people in to investigate. For him to tell us that he's not allowing reporters in means he's either been paid off, scared off, or blown off."

I followed him around the side of the warehouse. The initial police contact that Ben had gotten some info from during the forensics testing had told us that Hydro-Man had been spotted trying to steal a shipment of containers from the warehouse. Apparently the owner had called in the cops and a police helicopter was already in the area, scaring our baddie away. I would have preferred to check out the place in my other threads, but showing up as Peter Parker meant that I would have some badly needed cash thrown my way. Being a superhero doesn't seem to pay the bills, unless you're a member of the Fantastic Four, of course.

The wharf was right out of a movie. I rarely went down there (shortage of tall buildings to swing from), but to me the docks always looked kind of foreboding. Like any second you could expect to see a pair of goombas in pinstripes show up, carting a worrisome stoolpigeon that had somehow gotten a block of cement wrapped around his feet.

"Odd for someone with powers like that to get frightened away by a police chopper," Ben commented as he looked over the stack of containers that had nearly been stolen. "Wonder what he was after."

I glanced at him as he jotted down a few notes, then looked over the containers myself with my camera lens, snapping away as I made my own observations. Ben was right. Morris Bench, or Hydro-Man as the papers had come to know him, was an idiot, a moron, and a big time loser…but timid he was not. It didn't make sense for someone with the power to smash an entire building to pieces to be scared off at the first sight of a badge. Why didn't he just pick up the containers in a big wave and carry them out to sea?

"According to the labels here," I said, "the only thing in these containers is amoxicillin, which is basic medication with no addictive side effects. A lot of people are allergic to it actually, as it's commonly replaced by penicillin."

Ben raised an eyebrow at me as he closed his notepad. "Heh," I chuckled. "Sorry. I'm a biology nerd, remember?"

"Right, right," Ben replied. "So our boy tried to rip off a bunch of medicine you can get from any pharmacy. So then why here? There's something else going on, mark my words, Parker."

"Maybe it was a mistake," I commented innocently. "He hit the wrong place and realized it when the police showed up and decided to slither off back into the ocean. Stupider things have happened."

"Maybe. Or maybe it was a distraction."

Ben walked around the containers and peered through a dirty window looking into the warehouse. Cupping his hand, he looked inside and I heard him whistle, which as everyone knows is the international signal for 'hey, I just found something big.'

He motioned for me to join him at the window. After rubbing the years of grime off of the glass I could see inside, and what I saw was not something I was hoping to see that day. The warehouse owner that had just rudely slammed a door in our faces was sitting in the center of the expansive room, tied to a chair with a gag over his mouth. Standing in front of him was his twin brother, who was yelling something that I couldn't quite make out, looking like someone had peed in his Cheerios.

The problem? As twins go they usually don't wear the same clothes or have the exact same weight, and they definitely don't have the same long scar over their faces. Whoever that was berating the warehouse owner, he wasn't normal.

I quickly ran down a short list of guys I knew who could take on the appearance of others, and none of them made me smile.

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TO BE CONTINUED


	7. Chapter 7

PREVIOUSLY: Peter has been sent with ace reporter Ben Urich to investigate a Hydro-Man appearance. But soon Peter finds out that appearances can be deceiving!

**The Spectacular Spider-Man**

Episode Seven – "Double Vision"

Sometimes being a superhero isn't all about bashing the snot out of a bad guy. Sometimes, and this is a rare occasion, you just have to stop and think. Luckily, thinking has been my strong suit since elementary school.

The list of enemies I know that are associated with folks like the Scorpian and Hydro-Man is a short one. Mainly it's because of the smell. I mean, seriously. You'd think that a guy like Hydro-Man would be clean since he's actually _made_ of water.

That's why I wasn't too surprised when I watched one warehouse guard, who had just told me and Ben to shove off, slap himself in the face. Well, not _himself_. His twin. Who was tied to a chair.

You gettin' all of this?

"What the hell is going on?" Ben said.

I steadied my camera and angled the lens to look through the window. Since being a superhero doesn't really pay anything, I need to take my shots where I can. I snapped a few off of the guards and then slunk back down beside Ben.

"Looks like a lover's spat," I replied. "Or maybe one of them is faking. Which could be what the fight was about in the first place."

Ben gave me a look that told me he was less than amused. "Kid," he said. "There's a story here. Just stay low and take the pretty pictures, okay?"

We reached the end of the pier behind the warehouse and climbed onto a stack of crates that reached the roof. I feigned an uneasy climb and followed Ben up the stack. From there we could see through a different, much larger window. The guard that wasn't tied up was still yelling at the guard who was. Since this window was part way open we could hear a bit of what he was so angry about.

"…paid you to tell us when the shipment was coming in, Eugene! You lied to us."

"No!" the tied up twin said. "No, I swear! The shipping manifest from Osborne Industries said that the shipment was supposed to come in this morning!"

Nothing ever good comes from namedropping Norman Osborne. This was not good. I looked at Ben and the expression on his face was the same as mine.

"Jackpot, kid," he whispered.

Up until this point I hadn't thought anything about the mild lapping waves of the Hudson behind us. Neither did my spider-sense. Until…

BAM!

I pushed Ben out of the way just before a wave of water slapped out the crate we were standing on. We fell together to the next lowest crate, splintering the wooden case. Ben let out a pleasant "Whuf!" as we landed, signaling that he was okay.

Waves don't do that.

Hydro-Man does.

I looked down to the bay and saw the villain standing there, looking back up at us. Well, not so much standing since his legs were just a pool of water seeping through the dock. His arm was extended and partially formed into a torrent of water, which had just unsuccessfully tried to swipe us out to sea.

My spider-sense began to tingle again, meaning that Hydro-Man was ready for another strike. I was wearing my spider-roos underneath my casual clothes, but with Ben beside me I was a little limited in what I could do.

If things don't go my way I might have to unveil my secret identity in front of Pulitzer prize winning reporter.

TO BE CONTINUED


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